ACE Facebook page

Students from the ACE program on a construction site in Des Moines.

Dowling Catholic High School is known to be a school that fosters young students into extraordinary career paths. For some, their future may be in economics or the nursing field. However, one of these fields has begun to exist at a high-level day in and day out. Engineering is a fascinating and growing field of work that Dowling has developed into an outstanding program. Dowling offers engineering classes that you can take all four years of your high school career. Among these include Principles of Engineering, Civil Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and many more. 

Luke Susil is a junior at Dowling who is involved in engineering courses. “I’m currently in Aerospace Engineering. I’ve taken Principles of Engineering and Intro to Engineering. If I had to call one of them my favorite, I would probably say Intro to Engineering.”

Most students who are involved in engineering at Dowling hope to pursue a career in this specific field. For Luke Susil, it is definitive that this is what he wants to do.

“I hope to pursue mechanical engineering in college. I’m not quite sure what college. I’m still trying to figure that out.”

Another junior, Brett Gifford, strives to make his mark on the engineering world after college.

“I’m thinking about taking electrical engineering, probably at Iowa State, or going to actuarial science at Iowa. I think that doing some light engineering stuff at Dowling has really made me more interested in continuing into this career path.” 

Gifford has enjoyed many of the classes he has taken but he deems one of them his favorite.

“I’m currently taking Aerospace Engineering but I really enjoyed Principles of Engineering.”

In addition to on-campus resources, Dowling encourages students to join other outside programs. One, in particular, is called the Architecture, Construction, and Engineering (ACE) mentor program. In this extracurricular, students are introduced to careers in architecture, engineering, and construction. Students are exposed to vast areas of these fields and get a taste of their potential careers. 

David Pittman is a junior at Dowling who currently participates in ACE.

“It is a great after-school program where we explore many different engineering paths such as electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, construction engineering, and other similar topics. Basically, we are all working together to build a soccer stadium with a shopping center inside, so it’s very complex. That’s what we are working towards as a team.”

Pittman hopes to take his current interests to the next level. He hopes to carry on this pathway eventually to his career.

“Currently, I’m taking principles of engineering but next I will take Aerospace Engineering which I hope to pursue in the future. I am hoping to attend a good college that provides me with an excellent engineering degree.”

However, the entire structure and strength of the engineering program rely on one specific sector. The teachers.

Andy Schreck is a teacher who has a history as an engineer and has taught that experience at Dowling for over 13 years.

“I think that my prior experience as an engineer helps me teach every day. Especially in the civil engineering classes, I talk about all of my personal experiences with it and I try to apply it to my classwork and lessons. I really dislike busy work so I try to model everything that we do in class as a job task. Moreover, I would definitely say that my job experience helps a lot.”

Each teacher hopes to provide their students with the best information possible. To acquire this goal, teachers must cover many vast topics to allow the students to succeed in the future. Whether it’s building a cardboard boat or even working with a circuit board, teachers have a lot to juggle with this subject. However, they never manage to disappoint. 

“We call one of the classes, Principles of Engineering, which is the basics. We go into some depth but not too much so that it doesn’t render our lesson plans for the year immovable. The college-level versions of these classes are harder so we try to get brief overviews of topics so that students can get an idea of what they want to continue into after high school.”

With this newly acquired knowledge, we can be reassured that students will be receiving the best engineering education possible at Dowling. We expect more and more quality engineering students to graduate from Dowling this year because over 40 senior students are involved in engineering classes. 

Nicholas Stalzer is a senior at Dowling Catholic and is also looking to continue the engineering dream into his collegiate career.

“I’m not totally sure what I want to do, but I want to do something with engineering. Whether that’s designing things or something that has to do with simulations. At Dowling, I really enjoyed all of the projects we worked on, especially Aerospace Engineering with our self-made gliders and mini boats. I am not quite final on where I’m going to college but Iowa State is looking pretty likely.” 

Engineering isn’t just a career at Dowling, it’s a passion. Students are pouring countless hours into dream work and will continue this work ethic for the rest of their lives. Dowling Catholic High School makes sure to prepare students for success and true integrity in their line of work. Due to these facts, engineering will remain one of Dowling’s most crucial tracks that they have to offer for years to come.